Business!
The way you see it, success depends on two things: originality and consistent production. As an alien to Equestria, you are the embodiment of the first. And as a dependent leech, you're pretty much the second too. Win-win!
After a few funny charades and illustrations explaining your plan, you manage to convince Sweetheart to help you sell your drawings and buy you painting supplies. You don't really consider yourself talented by any measure of the word - but with a bit of marketing, you don't doubt you'll have all the little ponies from here to Cloud City eating out of your hands. After all, who wouldn't want a drawing made by a bona fide alien hanging on their wall?
The very next day, when Applebutt drags her cart over to the cottage, you and Sweetheart are already waiting, your burlap sack full of finished paintings, empty canvases and the supplies you'll need to make a few on the spot. The farmer has her usual stuff on the cart - several bags of big, ripe, delicious-looking apples ready for customers, and a rickety wooden stand attached to the whole thing by rope, presumably meant for you two. You see Applebee waving at you from atop the bags on the cart, her mane tied up in a neat bow as usual. It induces a genuine smile out of you and you wave back before putting your sack amongst the others on the cart.
As you do that, Applebee mischievously jumps off of the cart and pounces onto your back. "Whoah!" You exclaim, nearly falling over. "Jesus!" Turning your head around, you reach over to scratch her soft yellow neck, making the filly hum at the attention she's receiving. "Heh, love ya too." After adjusting Applebee's position on your back a little, you follow the farmer mare as she pulls the cart away from the cottage and towards the town. Sweetheart follows you, giggling behind her hoof.
"One of these days I'll find something I'm actually good at." You sigh, squirming a little as you look at the paintings you've made thus far and just put up for sale. "And then keep drawing because what I'm good at probably ain't worth a penny."
It's a slow trickle at first - a few curious ponies, possibly tourists, who want something neat to put on their wall. The lack of attention for the first few hours (especially compared to Applebutt, whose applebags are emptying faster than your stomach after spicy wings) sours your mood a little and you're left kicking stones around until a hoof taps on your back. "Hm?"
You turn around to find a small grey mare with a golden lazy eye and a grumpy pout glaring back at you. She's out of uniform and without a mailbag, but you recognise her instantly. "Oh, hey, Bubbles. Listen, I'm really sorry I missed all those morning scritches." You reach out to ruffle her blonde mane, but she takes a step back and humphs loudly, turning pointedly away from you.
"Bubbles!" you whine.
"M-km!" The pony grumbles and flops down onto her rump, crossing her front hooves.
Well, if she's already here... you sit on one of the bags of apples, cross your legs and put your canvas on your knees to draw. As your pencil forms shapes, you start noticing Bubbles stealing glances in your direction, clearly curious about what you were going to come up with. As your gaze matches her eye, the pegasus whistles conspicuously, pretending her other eye is the good one. You smile and shake your head.
Not wishing to keep her waiting for too long since this one's on the house, you don't make the picture too elaborate. A little dash of paint is all it needs and you turn it around, revealing a cartoonish image of a biped and a grey pegasus sitting together on top of a giant dark brown muffin, with more muffins raining around them. "Right, this is your very own Muffin Planet. There's the Spring Of Black Tea, take note of the sugarcube boulder. And that's me... and that's you. And it's definitely chocolate. Now then, may I?" You extend a hand.
Bubbles giggles light-heartedly and closes the distance between the two of you. You gently rake your nails across her velvety grey cheek, retreading the same paths again and again, resulting in a slightly dopey-looking grin as a result of her criss-crossed eyes. It's funny. You muse. They think just like me, yet all of them are so open, almost needy for affection.
She stays your hand with her hooves and takes the initiative, smushing her snout inside your palm and then resting her chin on it, looking up at you with a carefree, trusting gaze. Or maybe I'm the needy one and they can all sense it like dogs back on Earth. Heh.
By mutual unspoken agreement, you pull each other into a tight, reassuring hug. And at that moment, it doesn't really matter that you can't speak or even really know or understand one another on a mental level - you are just two living beings clinging to this wild universe, reminding each other that whatever this madness all is, you're in it together. And you're both just a little less afraid.
One of the ponies who wanders into the town square is the Goddess of fashionistas, in the middle of a shopping spree. Seeing your ignominious little stand, she tuts to herself and trots over to the three of you. After an exchange with Sweetheart, the unicorn drops her two saddlebags to the ground and uses magic to pull out a large roll of paper and some scissors. She also levitates your largest brush and your can of purple paint over to you, pointing at the stand.
You glance towards Sweetheart for a second, and get to work after she gives you the affirming nod. It's makeover time! Painstakingly, you color the entire stand a glorious, attractive, deep royal purple as the mares work on an eye-catching sign. By the time you're all finished, the three of you start getting dirty looks from Applebutt, standing right next to you in front of her trusty, but comparatively unimpressive cart.
Entirely warranted too, as the Goddess, generous as all hell, also goes the extra mile by promoting your products. You watch as the white unicorn mare excitedly converses with the unsuspecting potential customers in the square, her cerulean blue eyes lidded enticingly in a brilliant use of feminine charm, her muzzle permanently crooked in an approachable, benevolent smile and her hooves emphasising every word she says. Oh yes, the Goddess knows how to sell. And what's more, she loves it. From every street attached to the square, curious ponies pop out, following her lead as if she's heading a procession and, with slightly dopey expressions, come to check your merchandise.
The strangest thing of all are the noises they all make as they join her lead. It's all horse sounds to you as per usual, but it sounds oddly... unified. More of a choir than a ruckus. You're also taken slightly aback by the absolute lack of scuffling and cutting in line in what's an increasingly larger crowd. Sure, they're ponies and you don't doubt there's a bit of that herd spirit in them, but your customers seemed extraordinarily well... choreographed.
Oh well. You shrug and whistle to a random tune in your head as you hand out your paintings like a well-oiled factory machine and observe the pile of shiny gold bits behind the counter only grow and grow as every cute mini-horse happily goes along with one, or two, or five paintings on his or her back, only to find themselves right at Applebutt's cart where the little yellow filly, sitting on a pile of cash, gleefully stuffs an apple in each and every passing pony's mouth as her older relative collects the money.
By God, we're gonna be richer than McDuck. You giggle inwardly and catch the Goddess's eye as she orchestrates the mob from the very center. The white unicorn mischievously winks at you and you wink straight back.
The entire operation comes to a screeching halt at a loud, extremely high-pitched whinny. The crowd stalls, making way for a most unusual sight: two fillies approaching your stand, one dragging an expensive-looking carved wooden table behind her. The poor, working spectacled filly looks rich enough - she has blue pearls around her neck and her glasses look expensive and chic - but the image is ruined by her need to wear an old oversized brown saddle, attached to the table she's dragging behind her with all the force she could muster in her underdeveloped muscles.
You aren't concerned with her at all though, no... you're worried about the bright pink filly with a familiar toothpaste-styled mane and tiara next to her. Last you'd seen her, she was sad and lonely. But now her eyes blazed again, fixed on you as if nothing else existed in the world. In her mouth is a red, silky sheet. Once the two stop in front of your stand, the exhausted grey filly collapses on the ground, heaving. Completely ignoring her, Toothpaste rears up in front of the table, motioning for you to help her on the table. Curious now, you get off the ground and move beyond the counter to grab the pink filly's sides and lift her up.
On the table, the filly gives you a thankful look and pets your hand a little before spitting out her silky sheet. She lays down onto the table, draping the sheet over the bottom half of her body and propping herself up with an elbow, her head resting against her hoof. As for the filly's other hoof, it drifts down onto her fluffy chest and side, caressing the contours of her body in a remarkably calculated fashion for her age.
The innuendo was clear to everyone: Draw me like one of your Earth fillies.
You gulp, staring down the wicked filly as she takes obvious enjoyment from blatantly flirting with you in front of the entire town. Terrific. First person to ever have a crush on me is a tiny pony. That's one for the grandkids.
Still, the customer's always right, so you pick up your last empty canvas, place it on the counter and draw a sketch of the coquettish filly, doing your best to ignore the wave of snickering passing over the ponies as they all stick around to spectate. Because of course they do. Feeling a little spiteful, you resolve not to just throw out any old drawing - the pretty filly wants a fancy portrait? Then the pretty filly will just have to lie there and be a good little model as long as you say. That's right.
Four hooves and a long, long, long tail and some wings - no, wait. No wings. But a paw? Surely there was a paw... you feel beads of sweat gathering on your forehead as your frustration with Toothpaste's antics and the tension from your unwanted audience causes your concentration to lapse. Memory and routine take a hold of your hand, and they have a different picture in mind. Draw the filly, not the princesses' statue. You think to yourself. Maybe I can compensate by drawing her as a feline. I already made the paw.
Alright then, it'll be a bit surrealistic, but whatever. Oh, but the tail! You hadn't drawn a proper pony tail at all, but the elongated snake form of the bizarro creature! And you were out of canvas now! Oh, what a cruel and unforeseeable fate! Defeated by the rather magnificent madness of the monarch of mischief- shut up, brain! What the fuck are you on about?! Behind you, you can hear Applebee snickering to herself as she sees what you've made of her enemy.
Feeling feverish, you hurriedly add a few background details to the painting and hand it over to the filly, and push her off as she tries to kiss your cheek in return, the lips only touching your palm.
Lightheaded and weak, you gulp down several tall glasses of iced tea in Cutie Pie's candy shop as Sweetheart rubs your back in obvious concern.
Damn, that was weird. I never go mental like that. How long were we out there selling? Sun probably fried my head like an egg.
Applebutt seems to agree with your thought process, as she plops down on a chair next to you and tosses her stetson on your head, letting her own golden straw mane loose and wiping her forehead. You tap at the large sack of gold on the table and she smirks victoriously and holds up her glass. You, Sweetheart, Applebee and the Goddess oblige, all enjoying the victory in spite of what you're now certain was a simple case of overheating. I've got the money now. With that pile, I should be able to buy what I need to do... what has to be done.
You pull out your worn notebook and re-examine your To-Do List.
*Get Scooter a new scooter.
*Return to forest for new clues.
*Breach linguistic barrier.
*Find a permanent job(?)
*Return favors to Goddess, Lavi, Sweetheart, Nurse and Bunny(extra carrots?).
"I can do this." You smile to yourself, the sack of gold on the table being almost a physical representation of your confidence at that moment. You pull the stetson off your head and stuff it on Applebee on your lap, whose small head practically disappears into it. As you both laugh heartily, Applebutt snags the hat off of her and firmly plants it back on you with a warning look. "Alrighty." You say submissively and tip the hat like a proper cowboy. The farmer finally cracks a grin of her own and mushes your cheek playfully. Your mood improving already, you boop her on the nose as revenge, only to quickly pull back as she snaps at it. "Whoa! Damn, remind me to never piss you off."
You turn away, only to quickly find yourself in Applebutt's chokehold as her hoof of steel noogies you on the head. "Ow-ow-ow-ow-okay, okay STOP!" you whine, flailing around as the table erupts into laughter. She finally stops when Applebee straight up slaps her off. You pout at the orange pony, who sticks her tongue out dismissively, and reward the loyal filly by scratching her slightly pudgy belly, causing her to melt onto your chest, idly poking at your chin with her hoof.
Early next morning, during school hours, you and Sweetheart(still unwilling to let you out of her sight) head to the trio's treehouse on the Apple family's grounds, with you carrying a large, brand new, flashy red scooter. Having wrecked Scooter's previous one defending the fillies from the magical wooden wolf in the forest, you hope this one would work for her and make up for the time she spent without having one.
Climbing up the steps to their quaint little base of operations, you smile as you see the interior for the first time without the distraction of three energetic fillies skittering around your feet. What a place! It’s full of old furniture, posters, toys scattered all over the place, crude drawings and posters of unknown pony celebrities. An oil lamp hangs from the ceiling. The place brims with the imagination and enthusiasm of young minds exploring the world around them.
Sweetheart watches with a pleased look as you rest the scooter against the old writing desk in the middle of the room, and leave a construction kit and a music box on it. You wouldn't dare leave your other two pals without presents.
The bell dings as the two of you enter the Goddess's baroque clothes shop with a bright red notepad wrapped in paper. Without turning around, the white unicorn calls back with a melodic voice. Not hearing Sweetheart's response due to her incredibly quiet voice, she simply turns around and smiles, realising it's you. As she trots over, you hold out your hand to scratch her head, but the fashionista holds it back briefly, and then very slowly sinks it into her mane, enjoying the sensation of your nails on her scalp without disturbing her hairdo.
You hand the pony your gift and watch as she eagerly tears off the paper with her magic.
At first, her face sags a little as she thinks you just gave her a notepad. But out of politeness, she opens it up, only to realise the pad's already been used. Every page is covered in your best attempts to draw the various human fashion styles you can recall, from rappers to monks to hipsters to Conan O'Brien. Overwhelmed, the mare summons a lavish red couch with an appropriately soft pillow to faint onto.
As you arrive in the Ponyville hospital estate, you and Sweetheart are rather amused to find the doctors all sleepily lounging about due to the lack of patients. All of them immediately jump onto their hooves at the sight of you and she's forced to spend a good few minutes settling the nervous ponies down and reassuring them that they're not here for their services.
Well, not their services anyway. You search through the entire hospital - offices, wards, closets, everything, until finally stumbling on her napping on a couch in a disused ward. It's an adorable sight - Nurse's ordinarily tidy mane is a mess around her head, her hooves are splayed all over the place and a bit of drool is dripping out of her mouth.
You were going to let Nurse know how much you appreciated all she did to you... but seeing her there at that moment, lazing happily, dreaming beautiful dreams, you cannot bear to wake her up. So even though you feel your heart pulling you back to her, hugging her and telling her what an amazing pony she is, and how sorry you are for ignoring all the wonderful things she did for you, all you do is stroke her mane a bit. "I'll be back soon, I promise." you whisper. "Just keep on being you." You kiss her on the forehead and leave the pony to her slumber.
One last trip, to Lavender Lady's library. You have thought long and hard about what to give a unicorn who seems to have everything, but fortunately, you think you do have something to fill a gap in her pillars of knowledge...
The door is answered by her strange reptilian servant, who hisses loudly to call the charming purple unicorn to see her new guests. Always happy to see Sweetheart, Lavender engages her in lively conversation and sits the two of you down on a comfortable duvet in front of the fireplace. You wait patiently for your caretaker to explain exactly what you'd come here to do.
It's not hard to pinpoint when it happens - Lavender's eyes widen and she holds a hoof up to her lips. But of course she's not opposed to the idea, having been the one who asked for it to begin with on the day you arrived. You didn't trust the ponies then. But by this point, you're willing to trust them.
So just as several empty scrolls and inked quills appear in mid-air next to the purple pony, you finally pull down your pants. "Alright, this is what my dick looks like." You deadpan. "And God help you if I ever find human porn around here."
Lavender’s quills begin to scribble unanimously.
Scribble scribble scribble.
Lots of scribble.
All the scribble.
Night falls on the beautiful land of Equestria, and Sweetheart's household finally goes to bed after a long and weary day. The birds are fed and napping, so are the rodents and the butterflies and the ants and of course Bunnystorm III, his stomach bulging from all the carrots you'd fed him as a reward for saving your life during Chrysalis' takeover.
Sweetheart, ever vigilant of her animals' needs, walks through the entire cottage one more time, checking on everyone's welfare before nuzzling you goodnight and sniffing you just to make extra sure you washed your teeth. You pat her pink mane and watch as the pony walks up the stairs and disappears into her own room. You lie down onto your cot and wait for a considerable amount of time, distracting yourself with idle thoughts. From the window, you can see Princess Luna's moon slowly drag across the sky. Since your phone is still in Lavender's possession, you have no way of telling how much time has passed when you finally get up again and sneak into the bathroom.
The moonlight shines in through the window and you catch a glimpse of your newly shaved face, making you grin a little. One of the many things you were finally able to buy was an actual razor blade of your own. You take your toothbrush and pilfer Sweetheart's emergency medical kit a little for a few bandages and plasters, just in case.
You return to your cot and pull out two modified saddlebags you bought for yourself, branded with green question marks in place of the usual cutie marks. Inside the bags are your supplies - a lantern, a tent, a sleeping bag, a compass, matches and a knife. Not having bought anything else to avoid drawing suspicion, you're also forced to check Sweetheart's pantry for canned goods, as well as some fruits and veggies. You feel terrible stealing from your own best friend, but you know she'd never let you go back after the disastrous first attempt.
She couldn't understand that this time won't be like last time. Because this time you know where to go. The woman who'd called you had been specific enough.
Holding your breath, you quietly slip out into the night and shut the door behind you before lighting your lantern and heading off into the darkness.
A feeling of misery clung to the carriage as the ponies and their alien friend all rode home after the Wonderbolts' air show. Pinkie Pie of course tried to cheer them all up with promises of free milkshakes when they got home, but with Rainbow Dash having disappeared after nearly dropping Skinny through the clouds, they all felt... incomplete. After all, they were the Elements Of Harmony. They belonged together, as upset as they were with Dash.
Applejack, in her own words, had "half a mind on callin' that cider-sniffin', butter-hooved flyin' crayon box's parents and lettin' 'em know whas' what." so they could at least get the pegasus to make things up with poor Skinny. They weren't even really sure if their beloved giant understood what had happened to him, given that he was perfectly happy to give her one of his warm hugs as soon as he saw her again, but what they could tell was that her inability to be near him had hurt the poor thing, and that was almost worse than dropping him from the clouds. Even Pinkie had fumed a little.
Still, as they all travelled home, physically and emotionally tired from having chased clues on Skinny's whereabouts throughout Cloudsdale all day(not to mention the ground below), everyone eventually tuned out. Pinkie Pie fell asleep, softly snoring in her seat. Applejack stared out of the window as if she could will Dash to reappear. And Twilight was reading one of her history books.
Suddenly, to her surprise, she saw Skinny twitch and look around in confusion as if he'd heard something. The unicorn looked at him for a little while and... he did it again and then reached over to her saddlebag. There was only one thing in there that he'd want, but... why? Unless there was some kind of telepathic connection between him and the Ponyroid?
Skinny picked it up and stared at its screen with a look of utter disbelief, before tapping it and holding it up to his ear.
"Err, Twilight?" Rarity piped up. "What in the name of Celestia is he doing?" They watched as he mouthed something - alien words, certainly, but to whom?
Twilight held a hoof to her chin in thought. "I believe he is talking with someone."
"Buuuut we're th' only ponies 'ere, ain't we?" Applejack asked, confused. "Or does he got a lil' critter in there or somethin'?"
The unicorn shook his head. "I checked that machine thoroughly. Or at least I thought I did. I'm not even sure how he can be doing... anything with it at the moment."
"Why, whatcha mean?"
"Well... I drained its battery recording the Wonderbolts! And so far, it has usually been completely inactive without power."
The ponies could only watch as Skinny finished speaking and hoofed the Ponyroid back to Twilight. True enough, the screen was black, and the machine was dead and quiet.
Thanks for this chapter...
Oh, he totally missed out on a Heart Song!
Discord is getting to him...
It's cute they've named him Skinny.
As far as asking for donations for derivative work... Are they harming? You'd think Hasbro et al would jealously knock them down if they felt threatened. But this is not the place to be debating such things. Take it to a blog (or read the many others who have voiced their concerns, you're not the first and certainly won't be the last) if you want to talk about that.
Keep going! ;)
Dun dun duuuuun
Re:Author's Note...
As a free fanfic hosted on here, it falls under Fair Use. Opening up a Patreon as a fan-artist is legally grey, you're not strictly speaking selling your fanart. At least, not as a direct transaction - you're asking for donations so you can keep making said fan-art, and as an incentive you give donors earlier access, access to exclusive works, et cetera.
Selling a book of your written fanfics directly would be infringing on copyright. While making a derivative of a copyrighted work and publishing it for free is legal, making a profit off of said copyrighted work requires written permission from the copyright holder.
That said, it's up to the company to sue. Disney is famously protective of its properties - but Hasbro is relatively permissive.
Does he have a bit of Discord stuck in his brain or something? It's somewhat foreboding and I worry for Skinny now.
On the Author's note, The Sectret of NIMH 2? I've never heard of that, why would someone make a production about a battery chemistry? Let alone two of them? Oh well...
Also, I'm not sure about this, but if your fanfic was set in the MLP universe but didn't include any of Hasbro's characters, I think you would get away with it. However, most likely this practice is illegal, but as some others have said it's up to Hasbro to sue.
The plot thickens...
This was a very informative(and well-written) chapter (This has got to be Discord's shenanigans.) Diamond Tiara better keep her underage hooves to herself. Though that scene was kind of cute, I could see her doing something like that on the show; seems to be an innocent puppy love of sorts. As always, I like Anon's interaction with all the ponies (That scene with Derpy was all the cute), especially Applebloom; they have such a sweet little friendship. Paying back Twilight with a biology presentation, I didn't see that one coming. Though I think it's most immodest to drop your drawers before a woman. It was different with Redheart as she is a doctor. But I guess SciTwi is no doubt all "For Science."
I enjoyed it all very much though, more please!
I wonder who Skinny spoke too. He himself said it was a female voice.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Looking forward to more.
From my understanding, most of these printings I've seen only charge enough to actually print them, not to make any profit. It's just that fairly small print jobs are fairly expensive, and each book needs to be charged accordingly.
And I doubt Hasbro is particularly inclined to do anything. They've mostly taken a hands-off attitude towards fanfiction for the better part of a decade. Doing anything now would only anger their most influential audience, and there's no way they'd gain anything from it.
Fanfiction is a legal grey area in copyright law, but nobody has bothered to resolve it because it simply isn't a problem. Fanfiction doesn't demonstratably impact sales or profits of the parent product, directly or indirectly, and most people are either supportive or ambivalent of fanfiction. It doesn't impact their bottom line, and the only likely outcome of challenging it is angering a lot of existing customers, so why bother?
Kind of got a little off track, but eh.
Technically, it’s legal. Practically, you’re banking on being a shitty enough writer so Hasbro (or whatever work you’re building off of) won’t bother to drop the banhammer. Ethically, I think it’s fine but you can see some authors twist themselves to cater/pander to their patrons and that’s sad.
Financially, sure. Go for it. Make that money. But unless you’re really serious about improving/becoming a writer, you’re signing up for a lot of stress for pocket change. Unless, of course, you get good but you wouldn’t be asking if you were already there.
As for the story itself, it’s changed tones. I know it would’ve been really hard to keep it fluffy the whole way through but I figured Discord would mix things up, not Chrysalis who apparently went for a Ponyville invasion? That was a weird story arc.
Just out of curiosity, did you choose that name because of PPG, the creator of which possibly being the spouse of one of the early producers/animators of MLP?
9652352
I chose it because Derpy has bubbles for a cutie mark
not to mention the bubbly personality
9652278 9652275 9651973 9651842 9651819
Thanks for the informative responses! Though it was less the legality that bothered me and more the ethical side. I don't know about any of you, but I'd be rather embarrassed to ask money for the production of fanfiction, much less close chapters of my story up behind Patreon wallgates. It smacks of arrogance, and there's a danger of content creators taking advantage of younger fans' wallets for something that very much should not be paid for.
No offense, but is it a fandom consensus that ponies can own moons and celestial bodies? And how did Luna acquire her moon?
Such as "Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon"? Who wrote that one?
9652278
But still not as weird as that time the show randomly decided to bring in a frozen crystal empire with crystal ponies powered by a crystal heart battery.
oh and apparently nobody cared about being frozen for 2000 years.
...
I will never get over this!! *wiggles hooves madly*
9652375
I don't think the show ever really fully elaborates on it, at least not from what I've seen(I'm up to season 4). But given that Luna and Celestia are functionally immortal and the celestial bodies only move on their whim, I'd say yes, they do own them.
9652419
Well, no offense, but let's not forget that the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs also told their people they had the power to raise the sun. The people of Equestria may just need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
I got two guesses as to who the voice on the phone was (though I am probably wrong lol):
1) Eris, the rule 63 version of our favorite Q sounding purveyor of chaos.
Or
2) Alicorn Faust.
9652440
Lol, that may be true if it was a different kind of show.
9651973
Read the book. The Don Bluth movie is just... okay. The 2nd movie is a complete joke that even Eric Idle can't salvage.
9652125
Sunset Shimmer, maybe?
9652444
No offense, but what are you trying to say?
9652399
Yeah that was bad but that was far from being the worst the show has done.
Remember when the Mane 6 ‘helped’ by ‘pieing’ the buffalo? Or that episode where an owl joins the cast? And who can forget when Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie visited the slums?
9652522
I do not, because I've not seen past season 4 yet, lol.
9652520
Show's geared towards kids. So what's on the label usually tends to be the truth, so to speak. The show presents Celestia and Luna as the pillars of goodness, and that's what they're intended to be for the audience.
9652523
Aw. You should at least watch the premier and finale of season 5 so you can jump on the love/hate Starlight train.
9652527
So is Celestia a Mary Sue or something? And no offense, but is there a canonical explanation as to whether or not Nightmare Moon and Luna are the same being?
9652557
Wait, haven't you seen the show this very site is based on, lmao?
9652569
Of course I have. I'm just saying is Luna really a pillar of goodness if she is also Nightmare Moon? And would you consider Celestia a "Mary Sue"?
9652581
I don't really think Celestia is a Mary Sue, given that she's not a protagonist, frequently fails to assist Twilight even when she's there and doesn't have an arrogant disposition. She's kinda like Obi-Wan Kenobi back in 1977 - we don't know that much about her power, we just know she has it.
As for Luna, I understand that Nightmare Moon is basically her corrupt alter ego, a more extreme version of Walter White's Heisenberg or Dr Jekyll's Mr Hyde(dark magic is frequently portrayed as a drug that tends to change people's personalities). She basically detoxed, which cleared her head and allowed her to make up with her sister.
I don't think the show is complex enough to make us wonder over whether she's a good person or not - it's just a given that as a princess, Luna is someone we're meant to root for.
9652598
Interesting thought. In my head canon, Nightmare Moon was the last absolutist ruler of Equestria and was overthrown by her sister, Princess Celestia II of the Crystal Empire, along with rebel forces. She established the government of Equestria in its current form.
1,000 years later, Nightmare Moon rises from the grave to seek control of her kingdom once more. She finds Luna, who has a weak constitution and is socially awkward, and possesses her. Luna's sister, Princess Celestia IV and III of the Crystal Empire and Equestria, and the Mane 6 later on, exorcise the disembodied spirit from Luna's body.
9652440
Umm yeah but Celestia controls the sun and Luna controls the moon. It's literally their destiny. If you really haven't seen the show here's a lore dump.
Celestia and Luna fought a Chaos god using six artifacts called the Elements of Harmony which require their bearers to exemplify the virtue of each Element they use. Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, and the sixth is the "spark" that unites them all Friendship aka Magic (it's in the name lol).
Honesty, Laughter, and Loyalty were held by Luna.
Kindness, Generosity, and Magic we're held by Celestia.
After defeating Discord (which is a factual event as Twilight under the effects of a potion ended up seeing the moments Celestia and Luna used the elements) they got their Sun (Celestia) and Moon (Luna) cutie marks and took up raising the Sun and Moon that were said to have originally guided by teams of Unicorns (at great cost of magic and life expectancy) before Discord took over (using them like a kid flicking the light switch repeatedly).
I'm not sure about the exact timeline but Celestia and Luna became the rulers of Equestria around that time as the three pony tribes had a history of infighting. And being immortal Alicorns the two were a stable neutral party that could represent all three tribes.
Later down the line Luna became jealous of how ponies worshipped the day while sleeping through the night and eventually that festered into her becoming Nightmare Moon and Celestia managed to use all six elements alone against her sister which had the effect of banishing Luna to the moon for 1000 years (A silhouette of her head and mane showing up on the face of the moon, knowledge of her faded to legend over the 1000 years until she was a children's tale known as The Mare in the Moon). Doing so however severed her and her sister's connection to the Elements.
As for cannon explanations of the Luna and Nightmare Moon there are no official ones. The comics have one but they aren't officially cannon even if the writer's basically got Sombra and Sunset's official origin stories directly from the show writer's. The way I've come to understand it the comic stories about character backgrounds should be treated as if they were fables based in truth with an unreliable narrator. The comics paint the Nightmare as a shadow entity from the kingdom on the moon. Who can only posses the initially willing. The same Nightmare Luna let in ends up giving all the mane six Nightmares and possessing Rarity in a moment of her weakness in one of the stories. Again not officially cannon, but some of that plotline came directly from the show writer's at the time. Just like Sombra and Sunset's back stories.
9651842
You don't need to publish it for free, you need to publish it at no profit. Essentially just recouping the cost of physically making and sending the book.
Think about it this way their copyright prevents you from selling their characters and world as your own. But your copyright (which yes fanfiction writers do technically have a form of copyright on their works) prevents them from claiming ownership of your works. As long as no profit (profit being the key term here) is made by the author then nothing is being bought or sold that would breach Hasbro's copyright. The money paid is directly funding a good being made.
9652686
I know who Discord is and I know about his defeat.
In my head canon, Celestia and Luna only came to power a couple of decades ago, but Equestria as a nation is well over 1,000 years old, but I guess that's just my story. How does that sound? The show never really gives much history of Equestria, other than how it formed as a result of three tribes of ponies having settled their differences.
Also in my head canon, Nightmare Moon was a disembodied spirit of the last absolutist ruler of Equestria (although I've posted that comment before). No offense, but it makes no sense for anyone who has attempted regicide to be allowed the throne, or at least without significant disapproval from the plebiscite and parliament.
9652686
But if Celestia and Luna control the sun and moon, couldn't they use that as leverage in a war if there ever is any?
9652720
it's almost as if this is a land of carefree magical talking ponies who are willing to go along with their comic books sucking them into alternate realities
9652724
Like this? https://www.deviantart.com/cipherpie/art/Twilight-and-the-Fourth-Wall-298310811
Since I don't write, I don't have a horse in this race. In my opinion, fan pics are not illegal. writers don't have to take their personal time to write stories for our entertainment. Thats why I absolutely destroy those who needlessly harass writers here for no good reason. The fact is that wither you like the story or not, the writer didn't have to use his free time in order to try to entertain you.
Donating money to good Authors is simply (in my opinion) the next level of appreciation. Is it illegal, no. your not paying the Authors for the content, your paying them for their personal time they wasted in writing for us. After all, they could have used their free time hammering youtube videos on their day off.
Do all Authors deserve donations. Hell no. Im referring to good Authors.
The Monk
“Sadly, she was attempting to throw money at a store that had closed for the evening.” -The Whiskey Spirit
9652802
Parody is legal in the USA under the Fair Use doctrine.
This was a good chapter and it was nice to see the ponies actually talk and being able to understand them. Wonder what the person on the phone said exactly. Can't wait for the next chapter.
9652893
I'm guessing that "skinny" is the human character. The author commented that the ponies speak in a language that is impossible to understand without using magic, so maybe what the human character says always comes out as complete and utter jibberish.
9652520
We literally see their powers used to raise the sun and moon, especially in the finale of Season 4, where it's done wildly out of control. It sounds like you haven't watched past season 1, the way you're speaking about it.
9652720
There's actually a lot of lore that's in between the lines and hard to connect but the opening of the show is clear cut 1000 years before the first episode Celestia and Luna fought Celestia won and has been ruling Equestria alone ever since.
What gets iffy is how long before that they ruled together, people head cannon it's in the hundreds of years but it's implied, they started ruling after discord, banished Sombra sometime after, and fought with each other after that. (Nightmare, Discord, and Sombra are all said to be from 1000 years ago in their tales though so they had to be semi-close together) That's why it's a popular head cannon that the fight against Sombra started Luna on the path to Nightmare Moon by showing her her worst fears like he did Twilight.
Sombra being canonically an Umbrum non-canonical orphan, who grew to resent the Crystal Empire for how they treated him and eventually canonically took over using dark magic before being stopped by Celestia and Luna. (Try working through that mess)
Mind you all of this isn't even taking into account Grogar recently being added to the cannon as "the father of all monsters". Who even Sombra, Crysalis, and Tirek all say was an ancient legend when they were born over 1000 years ago.
If you take all the inane facts and mentions you can get a timeline but it's still flimsy in parts without at least some of the official books and the unofficial comics.
Agree 100%. I've never asked for money, despite being out of work for a time.
And the plot thickens. Nice to see a bit from the Ponies' side of things.
9652966
Well, if no explanation is given by the show, we may have to be stuck believing whatever head canons there are.
Seriously, don't listen to anyone who cites Fair Use. Theres a big difference between the hypothetical usage and the actual usage.
9652963
The first full episode I ever watched was actually the Season 5 finale.
No offense, but are Celestia and Luna going to hell for taking the Lord's name in vain and making graven images? Or is it just one of the perks of being an alicorn? And if it's the latter, how come no one has opposed their power, saying:
1) If Celestia were to move the sun, the other planets in the solar system would be affected, and
2) If Luna were to move the moon, the tides may go out of control?
9653300
I'm going back to bed
I agree. I’ll pay for her copies of finished fic’s I love, and if I really love a content creators work, I’ve been known to ask if their is some way to support them. But holding the ‘support me on Patreon and I’ll make more content for you’ over your fans seems really dirty to me.
Also, really glad to see the pony POV in this chapter. I remember saying that would be an interesting perspective, and I must say I am not disappointed. I am SUPER interested to see what he is going to do now though.